Advocates need the facts at their fingertips to promote change on the ground to improve maternal health.

Why we care: Around the world more than 287,000 women die during pregnancy and childbirth every year – that’s approximately 800 women a day!

How we are solving this: By producing an advocacy tool on Millennium Development Goal 5 (MDG 5)–improve maternal health.

Most maternal deaths can be prevented. A mother’s death lowers family income and productivity, affecting the entire community. For every woman who dies, approximately 30 more women experience infection, disability, or injuries.

Women Deliver produced a booklet* in 2009 on the facts about Millennium Development Goal #5 – Improve Maternal Health. Designed for a non-academic audience, thousands of copies were disseminated to advocates across the globe at conferences and through downloads on Women Deliver and other’s website.

The booklet was part of an arsenal of tools used to persuade government leaders to support family planning, and there was a surge of support for improving maternal health. Within four years, maternal deaths had nearly halved.

Today, the facts are out of date, and there is new evidence on what works in reducing maternal deaths and morbidity. We want to update the publication with the most recent maternal health statistics and expand the booklet to demonstrate the links between maternal health and education; maternal health and climate change; and maternal health and human rights. By drawing these links we will be able to bring in education activists, environmentalists and human rights activists and expand the network of activists working to make sure that every woman has the right to safe childbirth. The booklet will be available on the web, in three languages. We will print 5,000 and distribute them to advocates through conferences.

Nearly all maternal deaths are preventable with increased political will and adequate financial investment. Advocates need this tool to bring about this change.

*To see the booklet from 2009, click here.